Human Chains: “Prayer Camp” Psychiatry Study Raises Ethical Questions

A new medical paper raises complex questions over ethics and human rights, as it reports on a study that took place in a religious camp where mentally ill patients were chained up for long periods.

The paper’s called Joining psychiatric care and faith healing in a prayer camp in Ghana and it’s out now in the British Journal of Psychiatry. The authors are a Ghanian-British-American team led by Dr Angela Ofori-Atta.

In Ghana, the authors explain, there are just 25 psychiatrists to cater